Cinematic Excellence: Steve McQueen’s “12 Years A Slave”, Starring the Outstanding Misters Chitwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassender and Brad Pitt

Remembrances of Excellence (Recently) Past: RIP Helen Gurley Brown, Outstanding Cosmo Girl

The late Helen Gurley Borwn was Cosmopolitan’s editor  from 1965 to 1997, as recapped in her New York Times obituary.

Image via The New York Times via Santi Visalli/Getty Images

Strategically Excellent and Telling Power Placements: An Outstanding Photograph Featuring The 17 International Editors of Vogue, As Recently Photographed (Somewhat Together!) In Tokyo, Japan

From left to right: Yolanda Sacristan, Spain (seated); Kirstie Clements, Australia (middle); Anaita Adajania, India (back); Christiane Arp, Germany (seated); Angelica Cheung, China (standing); Franca Sozzani, Italy (seated); Mitsuko Watanabe, Japan (standing); Anna Wintour, U.S. (seated); Emmanuelle Alt, France (reclining); Alexandra Shulman, U.K. (seated); Victoria Davydova, Russia (standing); Anna Harvey, representing Brazil and Greece (seated); Seda Domanic, Turkey (seated); Myung Hee Lee, Korea (seated); Rosalie Huang,Taiwan (standing); Eva Hughes, Mexico and Latin America (standing), and Paula Mateus, Portugal (seated).

The International Vogue editors. Image via New York Magazine.

Excellent Audio: Mr. Alan Hollinghurst Reads Chapter One of ‘The Stranger’s Child’, His Exquisitely Outstanding New Masterpiece

Hall of Fame: Ana Finel Honigman (Currently) of Berlin via New York

Presenting a portrait of Ana Finel Honigman, the Outstandingly Excellent New York-born and Berlin-based critic and independent exhibition curator, as photographed by Maxime Ballesteros.

Excellently Outstanding: Ana Finel Honigman wearing a jacket by Don't Shoot the Messengers. Necklaces by Harikari. Silkscreen by Zhivago Duncan. Photograph by Maxime Ballesteros. Image via AnaFinelHonigman.com.

The Excellence of the Ancient Extraterrestrial Astronaut: The Dogu

Japanese Dogu statue of ancient astronaut, circa 1000 BC.

For Your Consideration: The Outstanding Paintings of Gérard Garouste

Gérard Garouste, Balaam, Huile sur toile, 2005.

For Your Consideration: Julian Assange, Released On Bail, Imminently

From The New York Times: “In granting bail, Judge Howard Riddle ordered that Mr. Assange appear again in court on Jan. 11. He also said that between then and now he must reside at Ellingham Hall, a Georgian mansion in Bungay, in eastern England, owned by Vaughan Smith, the founder of a club for journalists. Mr. Assange must spend every night at the mansion and will be electronically tagged so the police can track his movements, the judge said.”  Read full report HERE.

The Wikileaks founder Julian Assange arrived at court inside a prison van with heavily tinted windows on Tuesday in London. Image via The New York Times via Oli Scarff/Getty Images.

Remembrances of Excellency Past: Alan Hollinghurst on Mick Imlah

Reading writer Alan Hollinghurst‘s poignant remembrance of the poet Mick Imlah in The Guardian.

Poetic Excelence: Mick Imlah photographed by Alan Hollinghurst. Image via Alan Hollinghurst via The Guardian.

For Your Consideration: The Paintings of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye

Presenting the Outstandingly Excellent paintings of 33-year-old artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, on view, until March 13, 2011,  during the showing of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye Any Number of Preoccupations, her first solo museum show at The Studio Museum in Harlem.

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye Any Number of Preoccupations, 2010 Oil on canvas, 160 x 200 cm Courtesy Dr. Kenneth Montague / The Wedge Collection, Toronto, and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York